Monday, October 5, 2015

subterranean sojourn

No overseas birthday this year - the first for 10 years! I need to focus on building my shipping container house.

But as the day drew near I decided I couldn't bear to stay at home so we decided to head to Wombeyan Caves just over an hour from here.

During the past couple of years that I've been in Goulburn I have made many trips around the countryside to various little country towns and places of interest but had not headed directly North.

So Paul came over and we both set off to a small old town called Taralga about 50kms away in an area known as the 'Richlands' due to the fertile soils in the region.

Taralga dates from the early 1800's and contains some lovely old buildings.


We stayed overnight at the Argyle Inn (1875), a basic pub hotel with a nice wide upstairs verandah where we sat in the evening while Paul had his beers.




It looks out over the town and across to the windfarm windmills on the adjoining ridge.


Birthday brekkers: Vegemite on toast and a long black:


The next morning we set off early to the caves, a further hours drive two thirds of which was dirt road.

The caves are quite small and modest compared to some of the other cave systems (such as Jenolan Caves -  believed to be part of the same Karst Limestone geological layer about 120kms further North) but still worthy of a visit.

We restricted ourselves to just a couple of the caves - one guided and the other self guided. The former was the most interesting and unfortunately photos do no justice to them whatsoever!








There was also some very friendly wildlife in the grounds of the caves entrance.


King Parrot:


Mother and child:


Paul sleeping with the roos:


And it wouldn't be a birthday without the birthday candle ritual!